


Mud Pies

by thankyouturtle



Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Genre: Children, Community: Lime Green Musings, F/M, Family, Gen, Siblings, Weather
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-07
Updated: 2012-09-07
Packaged: 2017-11-13 17:24:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thankyouturtle/pseuds/thankyouturtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joey sends the children to play outside after a spate of bad weather - with surprising results.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mud Pies

"Penny for them, Jo."

Joey turned from the window she'd been staring out of and smiled - Jack was home early for once. She gave him their usual greeting, and then said, "Not really worth it, I'm afraid! I was just remembering something someone told me once - that 'good children are generally too ill to be anything else'." She chuckled in reply to Jack's querying look. "No, nothing's wrong - but you know how's it's been raining almost a fortnight now-"

"Do I," Jack said sourly. "That new ambulance driver of ours decided to take his vehicle off the nice firm road and into a mud puddle, where it stuck."

"Well, our garden isn't any better, as I found out when I sent our brats out to play in it this afternoon."

Jack sunk into his favourite armchair. "Mud pies, was it? It's about time Phil had a go at them."

"That thought did cross my mind after lunch when I sent the three of them out to play in the garden, as the rain had finally stopped, and so I very carefully bundled them into their oldest clothes and galoshes and said I'd be out to keep an eye on them in just a moment. Of course, that very minute the 'phone rang, and by the time I'd untangled myself from the conversation it had been a good quarter of an hour. And then I still had to put on proper clothes myself." Her eyes twinkled.

"Well?" Jack asked, amused as ever by his wife's ability to draw out a story.

"It seems that Phil had overheard Grizel telling me about those mudpools she visited in New Zealand - the ones the locals swear cure almost everything under the sun - and she calmly and decisively convinced Marie-Claire to take a bath in our rose garden."

Jack spluttered. "Definitely not the actions of a frail little thing! What did you do with them?"

"Handed Marie-Claire straight off to Anna for a hot bath; told Phil and Geoff that since she was going to get a bath and the rest of the day in bed, they could too for leading her into mischief. I must say," she added a little more seriously, "I don't like that Phil got Marie-Claire into trouble like that - or that Geoff simply followed her lead."

"I'll have a talk with them later," Jack said comfortably. "But don't take it too much to heart, Jo. As you said yourself - at the very least it's a sign that Phil's stronger than she was."

Joey nodded. "I know. And it's taken rather a lot more than a hot mud pool for that to happen!"


End file.
